now let's skip the tears and start on the whole-

[stagemanagers]

[You remember dying. Maybe the memory is clear and bright and your body still aches from the cause. Maybe it was fast enough that you didn't feel it and don't remember what you went through. But no matter how you went out you're still trapped here.

When you open your eyes it might take you a minute to recognize your surroundings. For the executed, it's your dressing room. For the victims, you startle awake in the place your body was discovered. But no matter where you are nothing is where you remember it. It's like everything has been picked up and moved to the other side of the room. The entire room has been perfectly mirrored from what it used to be and, upon leaving, it seems the rest of the opera house is just the same. If you remember one room being in the east wing, it's now in the west. If it was in the west, it's now in the east.


Welcome back to the Opera House, friends. Even in death you're still in the woods.]


WEEK 1 | WEEK 2 | WEEK 3 | WEEK 4 | WEEK 5


[ooc: Welcome to deadland, darlings! It's a perfectly mirrored version of the Opera House and each week, as new people die after new floors have been revealed, the stairwell doors will unlock and allow you to reach them. For example, week 3 victims will unlock floor 2 and so on and so forth. Also, all dead characters will wake up at their actual canon point.

Have fun because we have some fun things planned for you.]

Comments

[37773972]

[It's...interesting. Having everything flipped around him like this, but- Stephen has resigned himself to get used to it. So when he does finally reach the garden, and see the king there...

He's quiet for a moment, just digesting it as he tilts his head and compares this sight to the one in his memory.]

...I'd have accepted it. [No defense. No protest. He'd have walked to the noose himself, honestly. But he lets out a heavy breath] I don't think it'll ever be enough. Nothing makes up for what I did.

[superbeliever]

Well, you're not wrong about that.

[After staring Stephen down for a moment, something relaxes. Richard scootches over to one side of the bench, and pats the seat next to him.

Come here, Stephen, it's time for a Man to Man talk.]

He didn't deserve that. None of them deserved it, but Steven especially. Do you know what you've done? Do you know how rare it is for a boy to be his age and still be good and trusting? You must - you were a boy that age yourself once.

[37773972]

[It's not like he could say no. Well, no, he could, but- he won't. He comes over and sits down, hands in his lap]

No. Steven was just...there, the first time. The second- I knew where he'd be. So I told myself that if I just made it without any of- [he swallows a lump] -any of the- [He can't say it, he can't call it a mess] -if I did it differently, it'd be...

[He looks up at Richard, meeting his gaze]

You ever tell yourself something so much you force yourself to believe it?

[superbeliever]

[Richard scoffs.]

All the time.

[At that, his Serious King Voice drops a little back to his more casual register.]

...If it really was time travel. Why didn't you go back further? You could have kept Jonny and Sigyn apart, could have... reminded me to wear my breastplate.

[He's spent a lot of time thinking about that one.]

You could have- well, honestly I don't know what you could have done about Angus, but. You wouldn't have been surprised, and you could have protected the others.

My point is, why go back just far enough to guarantee that you had to do the same thing again?

[37773972]

It was. I met the Wizard, he threw me back, and...I did those few days over.

[As for the questions...he looks forwards again, working his hands]

That was going to be the last step. I wasn't happy with how little information I'd gotten, and- that was the whole point of this, Your Majesty. [He doesn't feel right, calling him 'Richard'.] I did this so I could get enough to go back and stop it all. I just...thought that if I got a little more, it'd help that much more.

As it is- I don't know how much use it'll be. I hope it's something, for them. Knowing the Wizard has something of a conscience, that he's after power, that- I guess, worlds are merging? [A sigh] I don't know.

[superbeliever]

[The last step. So Stephen had fully intended on letting them all die again, as if once wasn't enough.

How many times had Stephen been prepared to watch them all die for his own curiosity?]

Next time someone asks you that, you'd be better off to lie and say that he wouldn't let you go back that far. The truth does not make you look good.

[He still hasn't dropped back to the same gravitas he started with. Mainly because, well, now he sounds disgusted.]

[37773972]

[He deserves that disgust. But...have a sideways look]

I don't expect it to.

[Riley, he can...understand, having sympathy for him. Sigyn, on the other hand...he's still trying to parse her comfort. Richard...for all his silliness, Stephen understood there was more to him the moment they discovered he tried to save Red by taking his own life. So...if anyone can pass judgement on him?

He'll bow to the crown. Another breath]

If I'm going to Hell - which I'm pretty sure I am - I'd rather I go without fucking up anything else. And that includes hiding anything. I had to, back there- but not now.

[superbeliever]

[Richard exhales through his nose, a sound that, in other situations, could be called half a chuckle.]

I can't say that there's any way for me to atone much for my actions the first time I was king. I had hoped to spend the years I had left trying to do better, leave something behind worth celebrating - other than the fact that I was dead.

But with the books currently as they stand? I'd be right down there with you, buddy.

[He looks away from Stephen, over the wilted, ghostly garden. Maybe he's imagining it, but he likes to think it's looked a little livelier as the weeks(?) went on.]

Lucky for both of us this isn't that kind of purgatory.

[37773972]

[He arches his brow at that- he hadn't realized Richard had his own demons. Is it surprising? A little. Is he inclined to accept it for face value without pressing? Oh yeah. He's too tired to push much, but...]

...what is it, then? Do you know? Originally I thought the Wizard was just...holding on to us, for his power, but...I don't know.

[superbeliever]

[Nobody believes him when he says he used to be an evil king! >:(]

I don't know. If I did, I probably wouldn't have the words to describe it.

But it's like...standing in a mirror. Or at the bottom of a lake. You can see shadows, ripples of the other side, and if you really put the effort in you can even reach out and touch, in little ways.

Or... we could, at least. Until - a few days ago, maybe? I dunno, time is weird here.

[37773972]

...and I didn't help. [Glumly. And, softer;] God damn it, Steve. [He's not about to break down - he had enough crying when he arrived, thank you - but he does put his face in a hand]

[superbeliever]

...Hey, maybe that did have something to do with it.

[Thanks, shithead!]

That, at least, I can't exactly hold you at fault for. You didn't know it would cut us off from being able to reach through.

[Thank god he's not about to start crying. Richard hasn't had the chance to have a good cry since he died, and by god he needs one.

A beat.]

Everything else, though, you're still on the hook.

[37773972]

[He manages the weakest of smiles]

Can I ask for a favor? [And without letting Richard refuse;] Don't let me off it.

[superbeliever]

[Behind his thick beard, it's almost hard to see the near-imperceptible quirk of a smile. But he turns to look at Stephen.]

Deal.

Now you do me a favor. If - God willing - the Phantom was telling the truth and we get the chance to come back?

Be better.

[The second and last rule that he left - that Steven transcribed next to the rules on the wall.]

Second chances don't come around often. If we get one, you have to swear to me you'll use it.

[37773972]

I-

[Wait, hold up]

He's bringing you back? He said he needed a reason for that.

[superbeliever]

[Don't say "you" like he's special. Richard blinks.]

I- Well, he told Riley that it was part of his plan all along. That it'd "hardly be helpful" to leave everyone dead.

I remember those exact words, because "helpful" seemed so weird...

[37773972]

[General 'you'. As far as Stephen's concerned, he's got nothing.

But he's also staring at Richard, a dawning - horror? realization? something coming over his face.]

I'm a fucking idiot.

[superbeliever]

[Richard's brow furrows in confusion, and he leans away from this new look.]

Why? What is it?

1/2

[37773972]

[Give him a moment, he's getting to his feet with a frustrated noise and just-rrrgh!]

I asked him- I asked him how he thought he was going to make things up to the dead, and that's when I realized he could bring you back- but then, with the SQUIP? I thought he'd just tricked me, used me, like everyone else does, and I just- I got so fucking angry, Richard, [oh whup there goes the title, bye title] I just wanted to hurt him and his fucking Wizard any way I could, and I-!

I-!

2/2

[37773972]

I fucked up.

[There, he's...he's done. Or...not quite, because his shoulders are slumping]

I fucked up, and Steven paid for it, and...everyone else. Even if they don't remember.

[superbeliever]

Not that I'm arguing with you, because you sure fucking did, but do you think you could be a little more specific?

[There's an edge of anxiety to his voice, and he sits up a little straighter.]

Is it something the others need to know? Like, now?

[37773972]

It's...[He exhales, hands going through his hair]...other than me trying to remake all my notes? I don't know. I don't think so. I just...I let myself be played, again.

[superbeliever]

[He relaxes again, satisfied by that answer. Or, at least, too bone-tired to interrogate it further. Was he willing to push himself to a nosebleed trying to get a message through if necessary? Absolutely.

Is he glad he doesn't have to? Also yes.]

So you do believe him, then. When he says he can, you know. Bring us back.

It's a little odd, he seemed surprised that we were still here when he came out to speak with us...

[37773972]

If he can't, the Wizard can. But I don't know why the Wizard would. But...if they could bring one person back? I don't see why they couldn't bring...everyone...

[...]

He was- surprised?

[superbeliever]

After we started, you know, raising a real ruckus on your side-

[Remember that time they all possessed your ex?]

-he came out to the graveyard to try and talk to us. But there was something stopping us from possessing him, or even getting close. So we had to write to him in the dirt.

It wasn't the most dignified conversation, but at least he couldn't see us as well, I suppose.